Names & Faces: Marshawn Lynch, Ronnie Lott

Updated 6:50 pm, Monday, July 3, 2017

The Raiders’ running back took to the field in Seattle in a celebrity soccer game Sunday and immediately went full Beast Mode. Clad in flip-flops, Lynch — who played six seasons with the Seahawks — ambled upfield with former U.S. national-team member Eddie Johnson, who passed the ball to Lynch at the top of the goal box. Lynch, however, eschewed the rules of soccer, picked up the ball with both hands, ran to the right, cut back left, bulled his way through a would-be tackle by the goalie and crashed into the back of the net. When he was given a red card, Lynch yanked it from the referee’s hand and flipped it away. He then took the ball back from the goalie and kicked it as his flip-flop went flying (note to Marquette King: Lynch kicks with his right foot and made solid contact). It was all for show, of course. Lynch went back to shake the ref’s hand — and was given the red card as a memento — then returned to the sideline where he asked other players to sign the card.

The Hall of Fame defensive back — whose efforts to keep the Raiders in Oakland failed when the team announced its move to Las Vegas — is wary about an NFL team playing in Sin City. “I just don’t want our game to get tarnished,” Lott said on SiriusXM’s “NFL Rewind.” “And what I mean by that is that there are characteristics that allowed all of us to want to play this game at the highest level. And I remember, when I first came in the league, there were certain things that you could not do, and that was you could not have any gaming activities. Being so close to it, knowing that there are professionals that are in that community, it’s going to be very challenging. People say, ‘Ah, Ronnie, that’s all (places).’ But this isn’t Vegas. They gamble all over the world, that’s right, but there are professional people that do this for a living every day.” Despite his misgivings, Lott — who played 10 years with the 49ers and two with the Raiders — said the team’s move to Nevada was “a great opportunity.”